Shenkmen sued Tesla in California state court in Alameda County. The suit seeks to represent all Tesla early adopters and help them recover their costs. It also wants to stop Tesla from charging the fees in the future.
The complaint points out that Tesla attempted to get people to buy its vehicles early on by promising them free Supercharging for life. But now, in an effort to keep supercharger stations from getting too crowded, Tesla has started imposing a “Supercharger fee” on customers who don’t return to their vehicle right after it’s been charged.
“To compound the matter, when a customer, such as plaintiff, who has been promised free Supercharging for life, refuses to pay such ‘Supercharger fees,’ Tesla cuts off Supercharging access entirely, thus disabling a feature for which customers paid thousands of dollars extra to obtain,” Shenkman told Bloomberg.